Chronic soft tissue oral wounds (e.g., Mucositis, aphthous stomatitis and periodontal disease) can be very painful and often are to develop a simple to apply polymeric barrier for the enhanced healing of these oral wounds. It is hypothesized that by rinsing the oral cavity with an aqueous polymeric solution, which can self assemble at the site of injury via fibrin targeting, it is possible to form a barrier that act as a platform for the sustained antioxidant therapy improving wound healing by suppressing chronic inflammation. In this project we propose to synthesize In-situ self assembled, layer by layer polymers films providing a protective barrier and a platform for future delivery of antioxidants for the treatment of local oxidative stress mediated tissue damage thereby reducing healing time improving a wide variety of oral repair and regeneration therapies. Functionalized polymers of Poly(ethylene glycol)-g-poly(methacrylic acid) and poly(methacrylic acid) will be synthesized and systematically evaluated to determine identify key parameters in the layer by layer barrier assembly. These polymers will use fibrin targeting via peptide modification, and biotin-streptavidin binding for layer by layer assembly. The biochemical stability of the barriers in the presence of human saliva will be tested using radiotracing. Mechanical barrier stability will be tested using a static load and cyclic contact mechanical model. Key parameters affecting barrier strength and targeting (e.g. polymer MW, number of layers, degree of target moiety functionalization) will be identified using a statistical design approach. Specific Aims: 1.) Design and synthesis of layer-by-layer barrier assemblies. 2.) In vitro evaluation of layer-by-layer barrier stability. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project's goal is to develop a targetable polymer system which can be used to form an easy to apply self assembled barrier for the treatment of oral wounds and sores. Through a series of simple mouth rinses using complementary polymer solutions, a strong persistent barrier which can be loaded with drugs to accelerate healing times can be formed. It is believed that these barriers will be useful in treating patients with extreme cases of oral sores such as Mucositis.